The Hummingbird Bakery sells its millionth cupcake of 2010
The Hummingbird Bakery, credited with bringing cupcakes to popularity in the UK, has today announced that it has sold its millionth cupcake of 2010.
This significant milestone in annual sales figures is a first for the American-inspired bakery and highlights the continued and growing popularity of cupcakes. With almost a month to go before the end of the year, which will include several weeks of busy pre-Christmas trade, The Hummingbird Bakery is expected to sell in excess of 1.1 million cup cakes before 2011.
Tarek Malouf, the founder of The Hummingbird Bakery, opened his first bakery in London in 2004 at around the same time that cupcakes were becoming a part of popular fashion culture in New York. Tarek now owns three bakeries across London, the largest chain of cup cake bakeries in the UK. He also has plans in place to open a fourth London bakery mid-2011.
Tarek said, “When we opened our first bakery we knew cupcakes would catch on but we never thought we’d be celebrating more than a million sales within a single year! We’re particularly proud of this achievement because all of the cakes we’ve sold have been baked and iced by hand on site at each of our three bakeries. Despite the challenges this may pose as we continue to grow, we’re committed to retaining our ‘bake-by-hand’ policy as we believe this is an integral part of what makes The Hummingbird Bakery so special.”
The Hummingbird Bakery specialises in all kinds of American-style sweet baked goods including layer cakes, pies, brownies and whoopie pies. Cupcakes have, however, always been the most popular product sold by the bakery by a substantial margin. In the bakery’s first day of trading it sold 250 cupcakes; today it sells in the region of 22,000 cup cakes and 1500 slices of cake per week. The Hummingbird Bakery also has a cookbook published (The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook), which was one of the bestselling cookbooks of 2009, and has sold over 300,000 copies and remains a regular in the food and drink top ten more than a year after publication.
Tarek commented, “From day one cupcakes have proven to be by far our most popular products and their sales have always shown consistent growth with no sign of a slow down. At first we thought we’d started a cupcake craze but after six strong years of sales we’re way past that now – cupcakes have become an established part of British culture.”
The Hummingbird Bakery’s three shops are situated in Notting Hill, South Kensington and Soho. It also has an online shop that can be found at hummingbirdbakery.com, which enables London-based customers to order cakes for delivery. Potential locations for the fourth bakery are currently being considered with details expected to be announced before the end of 2010.
